Chapter 122: Broken Routine
A week had passed since his strange encounter with Lightslayer.
Things were... Weird, to say the least.
Hugo had now fully reinstalled himself within society as a Master, even getting a job within the government.
His daily life was not eventful, but it was full of things for him to do.
He still lived in the Immortal Flame Manor, waking up there every day.
He went to work daily, going through multiple legal documents and papers related to awakeneds and masters. He had expected more combat, but strangely enough, he was basically like a secretary for the Dream Merchant, helping with his projects and managing his missions, and more importantly appearing alongside the Dream Merchant through his meetings and public events.
The Dream Merchant, unlike Saint Cor, was a pure utility type of Saint. He helped the government by creating marvels for the public, generating a lot of credit. Then with that credit, the Saint would fund numerous orphanages, hospitals, and other places within the siege capitals.
That was a reason why the Dream Merchant was loved so much by the public, as he even helped the outskirts from time to time.
Hugo felt good that he was contributing to this process, but this was not his place. He was a Master who was fit for battle, not for this.
Thankfully, Hugo was also sent to neutralize a few Category Two Gates from time to time, easily handling them by himself. This had saved the government a lot of money and resources, as a Category Two Gate would usually require an entire cohort of Masters, but with him, only one person was needed.
Even the outskirts, who frequently got hit by Nightmare Seeds, had seen the protection of the Azure Star, as many had seen him in action.
His powers—changing between forms like that—both impressed and terrified the public.
To them, the concept of Noble Creatures did not exist. It was simple: humans were good and all non-humans were bad. So seeing one of their beloved champions look like one of the dreadful Nightmare Creatures did not have a favorable reaction from some people.
It was ironic, really. Back when Hugo was seen as dead, everyone had glorified him even when they knew he could transform into non-humans. But now that they were seeing the transformations with their own eyes, they began doubting.
Aside from that, Hugo spent most of his remaining time in the Dream Realm.
Both his Spirit Body and main body stayed there for most of the time, with his main body training with Nephis, Sunny, and the rest of the cohort in the ivory tower.
He was still aiming to elevate his battle art into the Ascended rank, and at the same time, he wanted to perfectly control his Titanic powers.
He was also in the process of saturating his titan core, which was not a big increase in power but it was still something.
His Spirit Body, Lugan, had been pursuing similar things. It was currently practicing its powers, further honing its control over them and practicing its aquatic battle art, which was identical to his Stone Saint battle art.
Hugo's adaptability had allowed him to use his battle art on the ground, in the air, and in water, showcasing how powerful the Stone Saint combat style truly was.
His spirit body was also absorbing soul shards and slaying many creatures in the waters of the storm sea, slowly evolving into a Titan.
Aside from this, Hugo spent his remaining time teaching Cassie and some of the Fire Keepers runic sorcery as Grey Matter and growing his own knowledge of sorcery as well.
He still had a long way to go when it came to smithing, as that craft was much more tedious than runic sorcery.
[Dragon Table] paired with the crystal forge was simply magnificent, granting him incredible affinity for craftsmanship. Through it, he had made many useful weapons for the cohort and in turn, he had given those items to sunny so that they could be woven into memories.
This process enhanced Hugo's smithing and sorcery, and at the same time it increased Sunny's skills in weaving.
It also gave the fire keepers and the cohort a lot of memories.
And within the last bits of free time he had, Hugo would occasionally test revel, talking about novels and books.
The terrifying saint was a pleasant person to speak with in text, in contrast to her real self which was very rude.
In short, Hugo's life had fallen into this repetitive routine.
That same routine was broken one night.
***
Hugo was assigned a strange mission today. Instead of being sent to neutralize a Gate or to some public event with the Dream Merchant, he was assigned the task of bringing down a Memory thief.
In the Awakened society, credits were not the most important thing—instead, it was Memories and Echoes, which were stored in banks by the great clans and awakeneds.
That was due to the fact that Awakened died in battle a lot, and if they died while carrying a valuable Memory, then that Memory would be lost forever.
So, awakeneds made sure to entrust their Memories to those Awakened banks.
Said banks employed awakeneds with non combative roles in the dream realm and placed them in very secure and hidden places.
Those Awakened carried Memories and Echoes for the great clans. And recently, one such Awakened had all of their Memories stolen by a group who possessed an aspect relating to thievery.
The fools who had done that were currently at the NQSC docks, trying to hitch a ride to another siege capital.
'Idiot. Should've just disappeared into the Dream Realm.'
Standing outside of a large storehouse at night, Hugo sighed and touched the faceplate of his Omnitrix.
There were four people in there, but they were only Awakened so he could just go in his human form and beat them up, however overpowering them was definitely safer.
In this world, all types of strange Aspects existed, so the chance of them managing to trick or outsmart Hugo was never zero, as he wasn't powerful enough to let his guard down.
'Hmm, what to use? NRG? No,Too destructive. Heatblast? Also destructive. Stone Saint? Not a bad idea... Big Chill? No, I've been using it too much.'
He had plenty of aliens to choose from, but that only made the choice harder.
'How very indecisive of me.'
Hugo's eyes suddenly gleamed as he landed on an icon on the holographic dial.
"Well well well... If it isn't my old friend."
A flash of blue flashed through the docks, and suddenly the storehouse's door was punched through, completely shattering.
Dust crawled up everywhere as the Awakened inside hurried to their feet.
"What the Spell was that?!" One of them said, and as the dust cleared, a monstrous creature appeared alongside it.
It was a semi-humanoid, twelve-foot-tall dinosaur-like monster with long, powerful arms, it had short legs and a thick tail trailing behind. Its skin was hard, brown and full of muscles.
A blue badge sat on its chest, though the Awakened were too terrified to notice.
"It's a Nightmare Creature! Run for your lives!"
The beast only grinned, showing its terrifying teeth.
"I'm going to eat you alive!"
The massive beast rushed towards them, running at a terrifying speed after each Awakened.
That night, their screams could be heard from the other side of the dock, creating many folk tales among the local workers.
Detransforming, Hugo laughed, looking at the four Awakened who were now knocked out and tied up.
"Ah, Humungousaur always does the trick."
Truly, messing with people using his Transformations was always a delight!
Hugo opened the Network tab on his Omnitrix, calling someone.
"Soul Reaper, I've got our Memory bandits. I already sent you my location."
"Alright, I'll send people to retrieve them. Just make sure they don't go anywhere." Jet said, ending the call.
Having his childhood hero as his co-worker was indeed very strange! But it was not so bad—not at all.
'I should speak to Saint Revel soon. She still hasn't given me her thoughts about the Northern Duke novel.'
He was about to message the dark Saint, but he suddenly shivered as he felt someone enter the storehouse.
It was an older man, perhaps in his sixties, but there were no signs of aging on his body for some reason. The man wore a perfectly tailored black suit and walked using a dark cane.
He had a cheerful smile on his face.
"Ah, young man, is this the pharmacy? I seem to be lost... Can you help me?"
Hugo glanced at him with a grimace, then shook his head.
"I'm afraid not... But tell me, why would a mighty Saint such as yourself need any sort of medicine?"
Indeed, thanks to his luck—or to be precise, lack of it—he ended up encountering another Saint of humanity.
He did not know this one though, but unlike Revel of Song, he was certain this meeting was no coincidence.
The old Saint clicked his tongue.
"You boring child. Couldn't we have kept the roleplay for a little more? Did you really have to take all the fun from this?" The man said, walking closer with unhurried steps.
"Sorry to ruin your fun, mister...?"
"Jest, of the Dagonet Clan. And you are?"
Hugo smiled. The man definitely knew him, but he was playing the fool.
"I'm Ascended Hugo. But that aside, Saint Jest... Are you here to kill me?"
"Kill you? And why would you think such a terrible thing?"
"Hmm, plenty of reasons, actually..Mainly the fact you're trying to get into my head right now using your Aspect." Hugo said.
He had sensed the sinister Saint trying to get into his mind for a while now. It was not a mind hex like the Soul Devourer's, but instead it was a type of emotional manipulation—weaker perhaps, but no less dreadful than mind manipulation.
The old Saint was attempting to raise his anger, for some reason.
[Omni-Mind] was truly a blessing.
The old man raised his hands in the sky, mimicking a gesture of surrender.
"You caught me! Guilty as charged. In fact, I'm guilty three times over due to the fact I've been stalking you these last couple of days, tracking you, and finally trying to trick you right now. Hehe."
"I ask you again... Are you here to kill me?"
Saint Jest walked through the storehouse calmly, hitting his cane on the floor while circling Hugo.
"To tell you the truth, I haven't decided yet. You see, we suspect that there's a certain nasty abomination in your head right now, so we came to take a look at you."
Hugo's expression shifted even more.
'What is he talking about... And we? It's only him though...'
"So far you don't seem to be infected, but we can't be too sure. Just stand there for a second and let me get a good look at you."
Getting more confused, Hugo activated his Titan consciousness and shadow sense, fusing them both together. He wanted to see if there was anyone else in this storehouse besides them...
There was nothing except for Jest's Transcendent soul and the four awakened souls nearby...
But something wasn't right.
It was deeply disturbing, making Hugo's hands shake uncontrollably. His instincts begun screaming at him to look away, to run, to do anything but stare at that harmless-looking object but he couldn't...
There, in Jest's hands, the cane he was holding...
It was perfectly normal cane with no enchantments on it, that, he was sure of. However, anyone could tell its craftsmanship was top tier.
But it was not just a cane. No, There was something mystical about it.
Hugo found himself out of breath as he focused more on it. The longer he stared, the more he felt a pressure building behind his eyes It was like he was drowning in an ocean of metal...
He knew that thing well. It was will, similar to the one that he had found in the Heavenly Chains but unlike sun god's will which was the rements of a dead god, this one was not... This one was very much alive and it was watching him.
Looking deeper, Hugo gasped.
His vision blurred and the room seemed to suddenly warp around him, the shadows stretching and twisting unnaturally. The cane was no longer just a cane, it was a gateway for something far beyond his comprehension... And through it, something was looking at him.
Something vast and powerful...
'T-that cane... It's... It's...'
Hugo's legs gave out as he fell to the ground and crawled away, his body moving on pure instinct, deeply terrified and disturbed by what he had just sensed.
Something vast and powerful was watching him through that cane. It was vaster than the Skinwalker and more powerful than anything else he had seen, except for Dagon.
Its will was unshakable. Its might was as tall as the heavens.
Hugo felt like he had lost all his powers—his rank, class, attributes and Aspect. All of it was gone, all of it was meaningless compared to the force he was sensing.
It felt like he was back as a mundane, and in front of him was a vast, slumbering beast.
Such a reaction was only natural, as Hugo was more creature than he was human, and creatures felt much more than humans when it came to the path of ascension.
Saint Jest, seeing this, only sighed.
"Did you really have to scare the kid like this, Anvil? He looks like he's about to shit himself!"
'Anvil of Valor...'
Amidst his panic, Hugo realized what he had just sensed. It was anvil of valor, one of the three supremes of this realm.
The will he had felt was the will of a Sovereign from the War Realm... It made Max Tennyson's will seem pitiful and small in comparison.
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Jest seemed to be done talking with the terrifying Supreme and looked at Hugo once again.
"Lucky brat. I should've killed you on account of what you have just seen, but I trust you'll keep your mouth shut, won't you?"
Hugo, still shaking, couldn't help but nod.
"Marvelous! Now, now, I must go. Take care of yourself, kid. And make sure not to transform into a dead person! Get it? Because you can transform into a lot of things!"
The Saint giggled at his own terrible joke before leaving the storehouse, walking away calmly.
Hugo remained there motionless, looking at his own shaking hands.
He had just remembered something very important about this world. He was still weak, very, very weak.